A Bear of Very Little Brain and the Thought-Provoking Exhibit that Tells his Story

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart. So it is with Winnie the Pooh. The befuddled bear's (mis)adventures have captured the hearts of people of all ages and sizes since he made his way from the Hundred Acre Wood onto the page in 1926 (or 1925, depending on which side of the ocean you are on).

Line block print, hand colored by E.H. Shepard, 1970 © Egmont UK Ltd, reproduced with permission from the Shepard Trust

To help you prepare for Disney's "Christoper Robin," you might consider taking a trip to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where you'll find the band of characters in an exhibit that tells the whole story - the real story - of how a silly little bear came to be such a big icon.

Though you won't see the original hand-drawn map of the Hundred Acre Wood, which trotted off to break auction records last month, the exhibit includes a number of E.H. Shepard's drawings of the wood's well-known residents and the very real boy, in a manner of speaking, who befriended them. Tucked in among the illustrations and accompanying manuscripts by author A.A. Milne are photographs of Milne, his son, Christopher Robin, and the well-loved stuffed animals whose shared adventures in the wooded acres of Ashdown Forest surrounding their home inspired the famed fictional tales. Hand-written letters help tell the story of Milne and the bear he brought to life to give a never-ending face to childhood.

All told, there are 200 works in the exhibit, which is a very big number indeed considering this is their first time appearing together in the U.S.

"For a long time they looked at the river beneath them," House at Pooh Corner chapter 6, pencil drawing by E.H. Shepard, 1928

"This exhibition brings together the most important objects in Pooh history to reveal why the lovable bear and his friends remain so compelling today," says Virginia Sweeney, the High's co-presenting curator for the exhibition.

And, in the words of Pooh himself, "Poetry and hums aren't things which you get, they're things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you."